How Long is Limbo
by Zeppelin Skies
Summary: Lee Yunho is a fairly straightforward guy. He may start a lot of fights, but when it comes to the important stuff—the real stuff—he's not so confrontational. Still, when your crush is dating your uncle, and she happens to be your English teacher, maybe the waiting game is the only card he has left to play.


**Summary:** **Lee Yunho is a fairly straightforward guy. He may start a lot of fights, but when it comes to the important stuff—the real stuff—he's not so confrontational. Still, when your crush is dating your uncle, and she happens to be your English teacher, maybe the waiting game is the only card he has left to play.**

 **AN: So I requested this fandom be included on the site because I love this Korean sitcom Unstoppable High Kick! Maybe there are other people like me out there, so here's hoping.**

 **I have an idea for a longer chapter story that features the Yunho/Seo Minjung/Lee Minyong love triangle when messed about with a Yunho/OC pairing. If there's anyone interested, please let me know!**

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 **How Long Is Limbo**

He remembered being annoyed. She was new, hadn't taught a day in her life, and she was going to run an all-boys' tenth grade homeroom class? For a whole year?

But then, it was almost a poetic form of irony that the principal would assign a green teacher to the rowdiest group of guys in Pungpa High (his loser class president brother and equally pathetic Kim Beom aside). At least he would be getting a lot more sleep this year.

And Miss Seo herself? Seo Minjung.

 _You gotta be kidding me_ , Lee Yunho had thought when he walked in (late) that first day. She looked as weak-willed and pathetic as he thought she would be, with her too-bright smile and purple sweater and shiny lip gloss.

He knew, when her handwriting on the chalkboard got all shaky and squiggly after a tiny bit of teasing (her fly was _wide open_ —that was just asking for it) that the rest of the year was going to be that much easier.

He teased her like that, scared her with bugs (she screamed every time) and let her hang off the basketball rim when she tried to pretend she cared about him personally; he was a professional slacker delinquent, and she would have to try harder than that if she really wanted him to finish his homework so badly.

He teased her a lot, because it was easy, and she was funny when she screamed like a little girl, if a little bit grating on the ears.

Yunho also figured out though, her crying was something else.

That wasn't…it didn't… _feel_ right. It wasn't cute. She was loud and her nose ran and she fell and ran into things even more when she cried.

Sure, his class was the only one that could mess with her, but _no one_ was allowed to make her cry. He made sure of that the day Yum Seung-hyun and Hwang Chang-sung first teased her about liking Yunho's uncle, Pungpa High physical education teacher Lee Minyong. Well, he agreed that it was dumb to like a divorced guy with a kid, but Chang-sung learned firsthand that day not to make useless teachers cry on purpose. For _fun_.

And maybe that's when it started. Before his teacher and his uncle, _Miss Seo and Mr. Lee_ , secretly became a couple and became the first real secret Yunho ever kept. The biggest one was pretending it didn't bother him.

"Miss Seo," he asked her once. He and the other guys in his class had just finished cleaning the classroom. Even big loser-brother Minho and his "girlfriend" Beom had left to study. It was just her and Yunho left.

"Hmm?" she replied, a little more distracted than she usually was while messing with her cell phone. She looked like she was thinking about something else entirely than being in this room where all Yunho could ever think when they were alone was— _Why doesn't she…_

"Are you texting someone?"

She looked up finally, with a sheepish little smile as if she'd been caught.

"W-What? Oh, yes."

"Is it Uncle?" he guessed blandly. She bit her lip but couldn't repress another little smile, and maybe he wanted to roll his eyes clear out of his head. Why was she so hopeless?

"Why are you still here, Yunho?" Her brown gaze flitted around the room. "Everyone's already gone out."

"Do you…" He stopped himself. Did he really want to play this, already? It had been months. They were in spring term and he couldn't understand what it was about her…

"Yunho?" she prompted, with too-big brown eyes and an easy smile that said she cared about what he was about to say—what he was feeling.

No one cared about the high school slacker delinquents.

"What do you like about him?" he asked. It nearly came out a mumble, but the wide-eyed blank on her face told him she heard just fine.

"W-What?"

"What do you like about him?" he repeated, maybe a little too forcefully. "What do you like about a guy who's been divorced, not even for a year now, and has a one-year-old kid. He might be _kind of_ smart, but—"

He stopped himself again because she was already smiling. Not because she knew why he was asking (he was pretty sure she would be dense to the very end of whatever this was), but because _that's_ how much she liked a loser like Lee Minyong.

"Yunho, sometimes when you start liking someone, there's no reason. You just see that person a certain way one day and— _there!_ That's it, you like them." Her eyes softened a little, but they weren't focused on him. He could tell she was somewhere else, floating up there in the dense brain clouds of her stupid girly memories.

"Then you get to know the person, and that changes," she continued. "There's something about who they are that makes you feel special for knowing it, and you like them even more for it."

"So," he started slowly, "what is it about Uncle? What is it about him that…that you know?"

Miss Seo looked over at him then. They were sitting by the large window that overlooked the grass field where his uncle liked to drill kids who broke the rules, like the rare times he actually caught Yunho riding his motorcycle to school.

"Ah, Yunho," she giggled demurely, her cheeks even turning a dusty pink, "that may just be a secret between your uncle and me."

And wasn't that just a kick in the ass.

How long was it going to be like this? He couldn't help but wonder.

"Miss Seo, I…"

She perked up, but he could tell she was getting confused (and concerned) the longer he stayed quiet. She smiled, waiting for him to say…anything really.

"What is it, Yunho?" she asked softly, earnestly. "Anything that's on your heart, you know you can tell me."

She was the only person to ever promise that she was on his side, no matter what. She _said_ that.

Yeah, she said that…but.

"Never mind. I have to go now, though," he said flatly. She looked disappointed, and he probably couldn't blame her. He was disappointing himself a lot nowadays too.

Yunho would go home, try to eat something (he usually managed it). He'd go to his night classes and go to bed and start the whole thing over again tomorrow, and wonder again, _Why doesn't she…_

He didn't know if tomorrow would be different, he could only ask himself why he liked someone like _her_.

He just didn't know there was a person—someone _not_ dating a physical education teacher, who in fact was not a teacher at all—a person he hardly knew.

That someone was trying to finish a history report due the next morning, asking herself a similar question when she looked at Lee Yunho.


End file.
